Time Management Expert, Event Speaker: Mark Lamendola
 

Time Tips: Don't Rush #001

Have you ever felt rushed? "I wish I had more time to do this!"

One of my graduate professors used to give the class enormous assignments on short notice. I complained to him about this. His reply was enlightening. He said, "If I give you two weeks, you'll wait until the last two days to start this. So, that's why I give you only two days to do it. I want to break people of the habit of procrastination. That's the only way they will ever learn to manage their time. This is an object lesson in management."

To avoid feeling rushed, then, allow plenty of time for something. Put buffers in your calendar. For example, suppose you have activities scheduled for each hour of the day. Break this up with an open hour somewhere at about the 70% point. Most of us fail to account for interruptions, delays, and other things that throw our schedules off. Then, we panic that we don't have enough time.

This problem is very noticeable with travel. Why wait until the day you are to leave before packing? Start assembling things well ahead of time. Have a complete toiletry kit dedicated to travel, and ensure it's stocked. Set aside some magazines for reading while at the hotel or whatever. Set aside allergy medicine, pack vitamins and supplements in a plastic bag and throw them in the refrigerator, etc. Make a checklist, and add to it as you think of things. Then, when you are ready for final packing it takes just a few minutes and you don't forget anything.

Local trips follow this same pattern. Have a little area where you keep your trip items. For example, I have such an area. There, I keep my trip list (library, bank, grocery store, friend's house, sporting goods store, association meeting, gas station) and any supplies I might have (coupons, books to return to the library, my trip binder).

I just mentioned my trip binder. My sister and I independently started doing the same thing at about the same time--an example, perhaps, of positive sync. Instead of carrying a wallet in my back pocket where it will cause spinal problems, I used to carry a briefcase. I could never find anything in all those pockets and I started carrying a lot of useless junk. So now, I have a zip-up notebook in which I keep the few things I normally need when leaving the house.

 

 
A great way many businesses are managing time is using software. There are many forms of time and attendance software which allows managers to track and monitor employees time usage.
 

More thoughts on time management

The phrase "time management" is an unfortunate language quirk. You can't really manage time. It just is. You can't gain time, create time, or even lose time. Time is what it is, regardless of what we do.

It would be better to say "time allocation" or "activity management" "time usage" or some other phraseology to indicate that it's not time itself you're managing but how you use the time that exists. But we'll use the common terminology here to avoid confusion.

Some things time management is not:

  • Being more efficient. Suppose you become very efficient at making buggy whips. Does this fact mean you are managing your time well?
  • Getting more done in a given amount of time. Getting more done of what? And to what degree of quality? If you rake the leaves on a lawn from one side to the other all day long, does that mean you are a good time manager?
  • Being able to juggle multiple priorities. Instead of juggling priorities, assign priorities. First tend to the urgent things, then the most important things.
  • Mastering multi-tasking. This concept conflicts with what we know about the human brain. If you buy into this self-defeating, time-wasting, quality-killing ideology, you might also be interested in practicing solo flight by flapping your arms frantically.
  • Working faster. No, this mode is how you make mistakes that you subsequently have to spend more time fixing.

Some things good time management involves:

  • Deciding what to do. This is trickier than it sounds. Which is why there are time management experts.
  • Deciding what not to do. This is even trickier than deciding what to do. Which is why there are time managers and why discipline is a huge, huge factor in accomplishing this.
  • Deciding what to do when, and in what order. In essence, prioritization.
  • Determining the scope, goals, and metrics for each activity you undertake. In this area, we the find most room for improvement. Precision here allows you to avoid waste on the one hand, and falling short on the other.
  • Planning out the work, task, project, or activity such that you determine the necessary steps to quality completion. That is, what must you do to meet the intended goal and quality metrics?
  • Identifying unnecessary steps. Get this right, and you can cut your wasted hours significantly.
  • Figuring out what resources to use. Not all resources applicable to a task are equal. Picking the right tool for the job saves time, improves quality, and makes life less stressful.

We've highlighted only some of the factors involved in good time management. We actually teach extreme time management, which is a methodology that allows you to make effective use of your time almost second nature. You don't need a complicated system. Our system puts many of the variables on autopilot, so you have more time to do what you need to do. Our system goes way beyond most other systems in results, yet is far simpler.

Contact us for a presentation to your organization: comments @ mindconnection.com (remove the spaces after pasting into your e-mail client's "to" box.